OF THE ALIMENTARY TRACT 107 



Spectacularly hopeful as was the rise of oral amoe- 

 biasis, especially in relation to common pyorrhoea 

 alveolaris, its downfall was equally but disappoint- 

 ingly rapid and spectacular. Following the reports 

 of the Philadelphia and New Orleans investigators the 

 dental and medical professions, in common parlance, 

 took ''hook, line and sinker." Emetine and alcresta 

 ipecac w^re to eradicate pyorrhoea, hitherto and now 

 either most difficult or unmanageable, and the specu- 

 lated effects upon systemic states of disease w^ere 

 many. At the present time, the theory of oral amoe- 

 biasis and its cure by specific treatment is prac- 

 tically totally discounted. 



The writer (1915), while not doubting that E. gin- 

 givalis was related etiologically to pyorrhoea, reported 

 its presence where it was obliged to be a harmless 

 dweller, and also in ulcers of the mouth and tongue 

 where it was probably only a contaminant. It was 

 also recorded that the ipecac treatments so enthusi- 

 astically recommended at the time had failed to 

 eliminate the amoebae from some pus pockets and 

 to bring about a cure of cases of pyorrhoea. A warn- 

 ing was sounded as to the constant pathogenic 

 relationship of the amoeba, the necessity of consider- 

 ing other factors, and the unsoundness of expectancy 

 of ^'cure" in certain cases of Rigg's disease. 



Under the conditions of the occasion a bona fide 

 specific cause and treatment would have suffered a 

 reaction; perhaps similar to that which occurred. 

 There was so much "chaff" in general dental and 



